Beitollah
Beitollah is a religious man who has been dreaming about a box of gold coins appearing at the end of a cave. He believes these coins are a miracle and wants to find them. But since he does not consider the coins to be halal, he wants to find a non-religious assistant to accompany him on the search. With the help of a job advertisement printed on the back of counterfeit dollar bills that Beitollah distributes on the streets of Tehran, he recruits the young Shoja and the two set off together to search for the coins. They discover several caves in the north of Iran but none is the right one. They move on to the central deserts of Iran and spend the night at a Caravanserai roadside inn. The inn’s owner suspects that the two might be looking for treasure and decides to follow them on his motorcycle…
Azar (82), a former actress, learns of the passing of her lover. With the help of a traveling theater troupe, she embarks on a journey to find the woman she was forced to leave because of society’s taboos. Her journey allows her to reflect on her past and her regrets, but instead of death, it brings her life.
Salehpoor
Rahim is in prison because of a debt he was unable to repay. During a two-day leave, he tries to convince his creditor to withdraw his complaint against the payment of part of the sum. But things don't go as planned. Is he truly a hero?
Behrouz
J is in their early teens and lives in the countryside. J has been diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder, goes by the selected pronoun “they”, and takes hormone blockers to suspend puberty. While J’s parents are away, their older sister and her Iranian boyfriend are assigned the duties of house-sitting and looking after J.
This twisted Iranian narrative follows a mysterious couple from Tehran as they distribute large bags of money in an impoverished mountain border town. Beginning as a black comedy, the film's mood transforms as the games played by Kaveh (director Mani Haghighi) and Leyla (Taraneh Alidoosti) become increasingly perverse, as they find inventive ways of humiliating the recipients of the cash. The immorality of the central characters is at times sickening, and their chain of lies is often as puzzling to us as they are to the townsfolk depicted onscreen. What is the relationship between the pair and why are they giving away money to the needy? Modest Reception has no easy answers nor pat resolutions - instead Haghighi takes the viewer on an intriguing ride into the dark recesses of the human spirit.
